October 04, 2011: The Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council (KCBC), in Southern India,
has announced to honor big families consisting of four or more children, days after
a state government committee recommended steps to control the population. “We are
planning a very big get together of large Catholic families in Kerala on November
14 in Kochi,” said a KCBC spokesman, Sabu Jose Chekkontheyil. “The main aim of
the event is to spread the message of life and that a big family is a happy one,”
he said. Couples married for over 40 years and who have at least five children
and those married after 1990 and who have four children will be honored. “Over
5,000 large families from dioceses across the state and from the three different rites
will take part in the event,” the spokesperson said. Salu Michael, from Mananthavady
diocese, said the gathering will send a strong and timely message to those who condemn
big families. Over the past few decades, the Church has kept quiet on family planning,
which sent the wrong message to Catholics, said Vinod John Kuthukallel, a parishioner
from Kozhikode. “Now they understand the value of big families and are ready to
honor them in public,” he added. Chekkontheyil said a few dioceses had honored
large families in the past, “but this will be the first time that we are organizing
an event on this scale to convey the message that a large family is bliss and not
a burden.” Last month, a government committee presented a draft bill on population
control which recommended punitive measures, including fining couples, who have more
than two children. The KCBC called the draft bill “anti-democratic and an infringement
on the parental rights of the people.”